Never before has a political campaign for the world’s most prestigious position been so riddled with lies, distortions, and misinformation with a bold faced disregard for facts. The American people will be well advised to heed the warning and beware of this diatribe that has pervaded the airwaves. The Republican Convention in Tampa has been nothing short of a shameful and disgraceful exhibition of ideology over truth.
It is clear that while the entire spectacle is saturated with hogwash, Paul Ryan’s selection as vice-presidential pick was designed by Mitt Romney to provide him conservative cover for the reckless and callous shafting of the truth. In Ryan’s bastardized view of government it is very wrong for ordinary people to depend on ‘entitlements’ but it is time to “put government back on the side of the employers.” It’s a prolific and pervasive Republican world view that as long as government sides with working people and cares for the less fortunate in the society that it creates a “welfare state.” Conversely he accepts without any compunction and objection that government works best when it provides massive tax breaks and concession to big corporations and wealthy Americans.
The Mitt and Ryan presidential ticket has consciously decided that lies repeated often will eventually become truth. An advisor made it abundantly clear that “fact checking” will not stand in the way of their calculated and diabolical quest for the White House. When the facts and the truth are not on your side and you hunger for power at all cost, it is very easy to falsify your opponent’s record and make up events that did not occur on his watch. President Obama did not create the economic catastrophe. He inherited it. President Obama did not take us into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that were unpaid. He kept his promise and ended the Iraq war. President Obama inherited an exploding national debt from his predecessor, George Bush and an economy that was on the verge of collapse. This is a very uncomfortable fact Ryan would like you forget, for he is aware that those who forget the past are certainly doomed to repeat it. The economy was on a free fall, losing more than 750,000 jobs each month before President Obama took the oath of office. The truth is he turned the economy around from a job losing one to a job creating one. There have been 25 consistent months of private sector job growth and the economy is on the rebound. Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress have been the stumbling block for every major job initiative of this president. They have lived up to their main goal as articulated by Mitch McConnell of doing everything in their power to ensure that Obama is a “one-term President.” Their chief strategist and spokesman Rush Limbaugh has consistently said he wants “this president to fail!” Now, that is the truth.
So, for more than three years, Paul Ryan sided with the do-nothing cabal in Congress and now he has the audacity to mount his convention platform and act as if he had no part in the wickedness that his party has postulated. Give me a break! Ryan has said that his father used to warn him not to be part of the problem but part of the solution; it seems his father’s good advice fell on deaf ears. In Congress he became part of the problem. Ryan’s Draconian budget cuts will create unimaginable hardship for millions of Americans. The fragile economy, which President Obama has cradled back to life, will be stymied. More punishing will be his Medicare plan of slash and burn. In Ryan’s America seniors will be given a voucher and will be told to fend for themselves for the rest of their dying years. Medicare will cease to exist and the poor will live by the good grace of God. In short, Ryan’s so called Medicare plan will literally throw seniors off the proverbial cliff. Parading his mother on the campaign trail will not change that fact.
In Ryan’s America, a woman’s right to choose will be held hostage by his government, for government is good only when it invades women’s privacy, but bad when it takes care of seniors. If a woman is raped in Ryan’s new America she will be forced to carry the child to term. For in his cockeyed and machoistic reasoning, rape is also a crucible for life. A young woman will be forced to carry the child of the rapist for the sperm cells that were “forcibly” deposited inside of her during a violent assault was God’s gift of life to her. The demonic acts that left her traumatized, abused and assaulted was all brought about by her: she asked for it. Her life possesses less value than that which has been planted inside of her. If this Ryan ideology sounds crazy and out of step with mainstream America, that is because it is.
Yes, this election is a choice between the crazies and the sane. The cool headed, meticulous and compelling and compassionate leadership of Barack Obama up against the uppity, uncaring and the entitled Romney. Mitt and Ryan have decided that America was better off during its dark and dreary past. Fortunately, Obama with his steadiness, steadfast and level headed leadership has used America’s power for good in the world. For all the misconstrued and distorted talk about Obama “leading from behind,” the reality is that Osama Bin Laden is dead. For eight long years, the previous Republican administration was unable able to find him and bring him to justice. Thanks to the hard work of our men in uniform following the leadership of their Commander-in-Chief, Americans go to bed each night secure in knowing that the world’s worst terrorist took a navy seal’s bullet in the head. So, too are the many high profile terror leaders who have been decimated. Indeed that is leadership you can believe in.
For those who doubt the resolve of this first African American president, let’s not forget that four years ago he promised if he had sound and credible intelligence that Bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan he would go after him. His opponent John McCain dubbed him as “naïve.” Well that was a promise kept: signed, sealed and delivered! Judging from all McCain had to say, if he had been elected President today America would have been engaged in countless wars across the globe. That is not just foolishness: it is madness. For a man who was a prisoner of war and fully understands the impact and destructive nature of war you would think he would be more circumspect and cautious about constantly beating the war drums. Alas, when ideology trumps truth even a decent man like John McCain loses his way. Perhaps, he just can’t get over the whopping he got four years ago.
Elections have consequences, and Obama’s re-election must be the only way forward. Mitt and Ryan must be left on their respective plantations nursing their ideology of hate.